It's amazing how many projects do not know their true status until near the end, when there is little that can be done to ensure they finish on time or budget. The proper time to rigorously track project status is at the beginning, not at the end. This is when project risk can be managed and changes made to get it back on track. Earned value analysis is the … [Read more...]
Putting out fires is rarely a good project management strategy, even though most project managers have so much experience with it that they could take it up as a second career. Suffice it to say that project control is where the project manager earns their wages. Project control is the tasks required to ensure the project is completed on time, on budget, … [Read more...]
So you want to introduce Six Sigma into your organization. Congratulations! Thousands of organizations have walked this path and found not just gold at the end of the rainbow, but satisfied employees, improved morale, and other benefits. The goal of implementing Six Sigma in your organization is to improve the quality of your products or services. That is the … [Read more...]
Six Sigma is a technique used to reduce defects in manufacturing processes. Hundreds of organizations across all industries use Six Sigma to decrease costs, increase profits, and improve quality. Although it was popularized in the 1990's its processes are well established in many organizations today. Six Sigma practitioners are trained in the science of analyzing … [Read more...]
Six Sigma is a methodology for eliminating defects in a manufacturing process. Although its origins are in the manufacturing industries, it can be used to increase product quality in any situation where a product is being produced. Six Sigma was developed by Motorola during the 1980's and subsequently adopted and popularized by General Electric (GE) during the … [Read more...]
A Value Analysis attempts to improve the value of a project using value engineering methodology. This is defined by the Value Methodology Standard, published by SAVE International. It is defined as an assessment of a product that attempts to minimize its cost in relation to its functions. Typically, a value engineering team meets for 1-3 weeks, during which they … [Read more...]
In most industries, standard methods of problem solving have been developed. For example, if you want to build a road from point A to point B and there's a stream in between, you build a standard type of bridge. Human nature tends toward the familiar. If that type of bridge was built many times before, all parties will tend towards duplicating the previous … [Read more...]
Project Management is like fixing a car - you must break it down into parts. You won't find the problem if you can't isolate the defective part, and you can't fix the problem if the defective part is not separated from the main engine. A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) represents this division of a project into constituent tasks. It is a tabular or … [Read more...]
Scope issues are the #1 reason for project failure. A scope management plan is the component of the project management plan that describes how the scope will be defined, developed, monitored, controlled and validated (Project Management Body of Knowledge, 6th Edition). The core of the scope management plan is the project scope statement. However, the other items … [Read more...]
I was once part of a project which went behind schedule and over budget. In response the project manager asked the project team to come up with reasons why the project was late. Naturally the team produced several reasons, and a change in schedule and budget was approved. Everything sounded like it was back on track. This dance happens countless … [Read more...]
